Trekking Back Through Time

The Trail Of History Leads Visitors Down A Path To Life In Early America.

October 23, 2000|By Donna Santi. Special to the Tribune.

RINGWOOD — Donning a bonnet, ankle-length dress and apron, Barbara Miller personified the dutiful and resourceful wife typical of the 1760s. She poked at a pumpkin, filled with cranberries, maple sugar and water, cooking over an open fire.

The brew could sustain a family, trying to find a new life in the unfamiliar, uncharted Northwest Territory.

"I love being out in nature. It's a break away from your busy life, and I think you can realize how different things were back then; and what we're doing with our Earth today," said the McHenry resident.

Miller portrayed an early French-Canadian settler belonging to a group known as the Metis, who intermarried with the native Potawatami Indians. She was one of approximately 300 re-enactors at last weekend's Trail of History in Ringwood. The two-day event was the McHenry County Conservation District's 12th annual dramatization of life from 1670 to 1850.

The purpose of the Trail of History is to educate the public about early-American culture and its ties to nature, said Kim Caldwell, MCCD's education program coordinator. It also teaches environmental awareness and may acquaint residents unfamiliar with the district to new sites and programs.

Between 13,000 and 16,000 people were expected to pass the gates and walk a mile-long path into the 25-acre valley floor of Glacial Park. The serenity of the open land was transformed into more than 110 camp sites, a military fort and a canoe landing along the Nippersink Creek.

"The country we have today was shaped by people who were tied to the land," said Edward Collins, a biologist with the conservation district who counts himself as a 20-year "living historian."

"It was a beautiful and wonderful land, but it was also a harsh wilderness. People learned to be self-reliant and honest," he said. "This was a culture that wasted very little. Money was rare, a bartering system evolved and there was a real sense of community."

Visitors were treated to demonstrations of presettlement life, when primarily European natives crossed through the Northwest Territory in search of new opportunities.

Against a backdrop of open campfires, and Irish-influenced fife and drum music, Sharon Harms of Spring Grove watched as re-enactors dipped candles and made hand soap, concocted from lye and animal fat.

Her three sons got a taste of life as children in the 1800s, taking turns washing laundry in a tub, fetching water, beating rugs and grinding corn into meal.

"It's hands-on; something they wouldn't normally have been interested in," she said. "Reading it in a book and seeing it, that's two entirely different things."

Some of the volunteer re-enactors travel to McHenry County from as far away as Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Many spend years researching a character and invest their own money in props, said Collins.

Marshall Wolfe of Belvidere can be counted among those who take the hobby seriously. Playing an 1800s French trapper who assimilated into the Native American culture, Wolfe strode around the prairie in a "scalp" shirt of deer hide with horse-hair trim and a beaded loincloth. His dog, Baby, dragged a travois, or sled, made of willow and dogwood branches, bound by sinew.

"There weren't a lot of horses available at this time period, and people used dogs for packing or hunting from one site to another," he said.

David Brucki of Wonder Lake said he had never visited Glacial Park, but was enticed to stop by Saturday when he saw all of the traffic.

He and his family visited for three hours. They feasted on wild rice, roasted corn, homemade root beer, and biscuits and gravy. Daniel Brucki, 9, brought home a souvenir of rabbit fur.

"It was great for the kids and, it's a nice day here with the family," David Brucki said.

As Brucki, his parents, son, niece and nephew walked back to their car, Brucki realized the significance of three generations of his own family walking together.